Weekly Bulletin for St Mary's and the Villages
Bulletin for November 17th 2024 – 2 before Advent
Collect
Heavenly Father,
whose blessed Son was revealed to destroy the works of the devil
and to make us the children of God and heirs of eternal life:
grant that we, having this hope, may purify ourselves even as he is pure;
that when he shall appear in power and great glory
we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom;
where he is alive and reigns….
Additional Collect
Heavenly Lord, you long for the world’s salvation:
stir us from apathy, restrain us from excess and revive in us new hope
that all creation will one day be healed in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Today: 2nd Sunday before Advent/Safeguarding Sunday
Barton
8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist
11.30 Baptisms
6.00 Evensong
Villages
9.30 Morning Praise at Bonby
9.30 Holy Communion (BCP) at Horkstow
Morning Readings:
Daniel 12.1-3 Psalm 16 Hebrews 10.11-14 [15-18] 19-25 Mark 13.1-8
Evening Readings:
Daniel 3 (or 3.13-30) Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43
This Week
Monday
9.30-11.30 Toddler Time (Barton Hall)
10.30 Worlaby PCC
Wednesday
9.30 Eucharist (Barton)
2.00 MU Meeting (Barton Hall)
Next Sunday:
Sunday next before Advent/Christ the King/ ‘Stir-up Sunday’
Barton
8.00 Said Eucharist
9.30 Parish Eucharist (incense)
6.00 Said Eucharist with hymns
Villages
9.30 Holy Communion (BCP) at Saxby
11.00 Holy Communion (CW) at Worlaby
Readings:
Daniel 7.9-10, 13, 14 Psalm 93 Revelation 1.4b-8 John 18.33-37
Meditation Shell shocked
It’s unlikely that the Makin report on abuse by the former barrister and youth camp leader John Smyth has escaped your attention, even if it’s just because of the headlines made by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s resignation. Anyone who is struggling with it all is encouraged to get in touch, either with one of us, or with one of the support organisations out there – you’ll find a link to some of them at https://bartonstmary.org.uk/safeguarding
There will be people for whom this awakens old and traumatic memories. There’ll be folk in our own congregations and communities who are upset, or so sickened by it all that they reject the Church and all that goes with it. We might well feel that our own local efforts to provide a safe place have been betrayed. We hold them all in our prayers, including the people who may want nothing more to do with us.
Makin chronicles an abysmal failure of safeguarding going back decades which has had an appalling and ongoing impact on Smyth’s victims; it has provided those critical of the Church with back-up for their criticisms. It is bleak, distressing, uncomfortable reading, and as well as the catastrophic damage done to those on the receiving end of Smyth’s warped sexuality, it has made our job as the Church even harder as we lose yet more of the trust of wider society.
We know things have evolved these last ten years, but mention of ‘safeguarding’ can still provoke sighs of frustration/irritation -’yet more hoops to jump through in order to get on with what we want to do’. However, if ever we thought we could relax, Makin is a wake-up call.
Safeguarding awareness in our own neck of the woods has actively prevented harm in the past. Though it isn’t always popular (‘Shouldn’t you give X the benefit of the doubt?’ ‘Everyone makes mistakes - let those who are without sin cast the first stone.’ ‘Aren’t you supposed to forgive?’), the Smyth scandal shows where such misplaced ‘charity’ leads: Elie Wiesel said of the Holocaust that the only people with the right to forgive are its victims, and the same applies here. Our job is to listen to the abused, to prevent harm, to enable justice – and properly to support an offender in their rehabilitation in the community.
Today is ‘Safeguarding Sunday’– thus we keep in our prayers all those on the receiving end of abuse in all its forms and disguises. We pray for the work of our diocesan safeguarding team and our parish safeguarding officers. Hard though it may be, we pray for offenders. And we pray for ourselves and our churches, that we may reflect, learn – and act accordingly.
Makin is very much a work in progress. Bishop Stephen indicated the next steps in his interview in ‘The Times’ last week and in his address to Diocesan Synod (on the diocesan website at
Anyone who would like a paper copy, please ask.
The following are some of my own reflections….
It’s been suggested that, at least among those who ‘knew’ back in the ‘80’s– mainly members of networks backing the camps – loyalty to ‘The Cause’ overrode both the duty of care towards the abused, and the Gospel call to defend the vulnerable and to uphold justice and truth.
If so, this feels disturbingly like some other scandals which have befallen public bodies– Oxfam, Savile, Horizon, the NHS infected blood tragedy- where whistles were either not blown or ignored until years afterwards. How can this happen? Aren’t all these institutions , like the Church, supposed to be working for good, for the community, for the vulnerable and needy?
So let’s see. We’re part of an organisation devoted to making the world a better place. We know it’s of huge benefit to people. And then one day, we get to hear of something worryingly ‘off’. What do we do about it?
The answer should be obvious: report it.
But what if we think, ‘If this gets out, will it wreck all the good work that we’re doing?’ Perhaps we’ll leave it to someone else, someone better qualified to make that call. And there lies the disastrously misguided road into Smyth/Savile/ Oxfam/ Infected Blood/Horizon territory.
None of this excuses the perpetrators, the Smyths, the Saviles and the like. Nor is it to exonerate those who could have acted to end the abuse but didn’t. The decision to cover up or to do nothing always makes matters worse, not better, in the long run, for both survivors and institutions. So where do we go from here?
Alongside anger, bewilderment and distress at Makin, there’s a challenge. If we belong to any institution which is devoted to doing good (like the Church or a school, or the NHS, or...) can an unwavering, uncritical loyalty – to The Group, to The Project -risk ending up allowing harm?
If such a harrowing situation ever confronts us, may we have the courage not to walk by on the other side, but to serve the vulnerable and the cause of truth and justice – and in doing so, we not only serve these, we might also help save an institution from betraying its own high ideals. Even our own Church of England.
David
For our prayers
Church:
The Church in Southern Africa.
Our parishes, deanery & diocese at a time of change.
The diocesan safeguarding team and safeguarding officers in our own parishes.
(On the Feast of St Hugh) Our cathedral.
World:
Those in authority.
All trying to resolve the crisis, political and humanitarian, in the Middle East. Those leading in the protection of our planet and the resolution of the issues surrounding migrancy.
The governments & peoples of the United States, Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti.
Our Community:
Community organisations and those who enrich community life.
Diocese: Leisure and sports activities
The world’s half-forgotten troubled lands -
Afghanistan, Myanmar
Those in need.
All who are fleeing war, poverty or climate change.
People living under the shadow of fear, deprivation or illness;
the anxious, the lonely and all who mourn.
Those struggling to make ends meet. The homeless.
Those in hospital or who watch with them.
Those who have suffered abuse.
The Departed.
Coming Up
Worlaby PCC meets on Tuesday at10.30
Coffee morning and St Peter’s School toy exchange:
10-12 30th November in St Mary's Hall.
St Mary's Christmas Fair December 7th from 10.00
donations for raffles, bottle stall and anything else people can think of are invited.
St Mary’s Church Calendars 2025
These may be ordered price £5.00, and will be available at the Christmas Fair.
Time to change together Vision Day
On 23rd November there's the second of the days exploring how this deanery will work under TTCT. , Anybody who would like to involved is welcome. It's at Barnetby church and timings are 9.30 for 10 -4.00 pm. Tea/coffee and biscuits will be provided but you'll need a packed lunch. We've made quite bit of progress, so that's encouraging, but your voice and insights are all part of the mix.
Fred Carlile may or may not be a name known to you, but if you’ve ever driven on the A1077 through Ferriby, or been in Barton Market Place at the right time, you’ll remember him, either standing at the bottom of Ferriby Hill by the Horkstow Road junction and waving at passing traffic, or ambling around happily (if noisily) near the market place bus stops in Barton.
Fred’s been ill for some time now, and has been in residential care. On Thursday morning of last week he died gently and peacefully. He brightened the life of many people, and we remember him with fondness. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
“Now is the end” Perish the world!”
A study morning for Advent - 10-12 December 14th in Barton Church Hall
Some may remember a (1961)‘Beyond the Fringe’ sketch, in which Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Alan Bennett and Dudley Moore are on a mountain-top to witness the End Of All Things (the full sketch is at https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2011/10/end-of-world.html ):
All : (Chanting) Now is the end - Perish The World!
Pause
PC: It was GMT, wasn't it?
JM: Yes.
PC : Well, it's not quite the conflagration I'd been banking on. Never mind, lads,
same time tomorrow... we must get a winner one day.
We find people getting excited about the End of the World even in St Paul’s time; in AD 700 many believed the sixth millennium since the Creation was about to end, and that would be cue for The Big One; folk got very twitchy round about AD 999, and so it went on, with the most epic fail being a confident prediction of October 2nd 1914.
Despite it having only the shallowest roots in Scripture and Christian thought, current excitement is all focused on ‘The Rapture’, when the faithful will (shortly) be gathered up to Heaven, leaving everyone else to their fate (giving rise to US bumper stickers, including, ‘After the rapture, can I have your car?’ and insurance schemes for left-behind pets).
Under all the oddness lies something less excitable: Advent is a season for exploring Last Judgement themes, so for a couple of hours, we’ll be taking a look at the less exotic words of Scripture on the subject, especially Jesus’ sayings, possibly with the odd nod towards other Christian authors as well, trying to work out, not ‘when’ but what it might mean.
Bring a Bible (no particular version, just one you can work with) – David will provide anything else.
